On the 25th of August the well known, German language open posting news website linksunten.indymedia.org was declared illegal by the German state. On the same day raids took place in Freiburg to seize computers, money and various technical equipment. The events were covered by a media disinformation campaign calling linksunten a „means of organization of militant criminals“, quoting unlawful posts by anonymous users and presenting weapons found in the raids, which in reality turned out to be a bunch of kitchen and construction equipment.

We feel the need to emphasize our solidarity with the autonomous media collective linksunten and the indymedia network as a whole, as well as all unrelated projects and individuals harmed by the raids.

There is a lot of talk about so called “spaces without law”, where the state presents itself as angel of salvation spilling their law like medicine in every corner of society and by doing so solving all of its problems. But the problems of society – injustice, repression and violence – are central results of this law. While it is e.g. unlawful to gather in the streets without permission, it is lawful to exploit employees and renters, it is lawful to speculate on food, it is lawful for the cops to beat down citizens, it is lawful to trade weapons, it is lawful to fund foreign militias, it is lawful to invade remote territory.

This is why we support spaces without the law of the state in cyberspace and on the streets. Lawless spaces are seldom spaces of violence and survival of the fittest. They are organized by communities forming their own norms, perspectives, and discourse. Social change will never be achieved through legal institutions, but by organizing solidary free or open spaces to challenge national rule.